Sweden’s Telia Sonera Confirms It’s Investing $115M In Spotify

Timed perfectly to offset the big Apple Music launch earlier this week, music streaming service Spotify has finally closed its latest financing round. Among the investors is Sweden’s main carrier, Telia Sonera, which today announced that it is investing $115 million for a 1.4 percent stake in the company, valuing Spotify at around $8.2 billion. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the full round is $526 million at an $8.53 valuation. That story has not (yet) been confirmed by Spotify itself. We’ve contacted the company for comment.

The WSJ says British asset managers Baillie Gifford, Landsdowne Partners and Rinkelberg Capital; Canadian hedge funds Senvest Capital SEC.T and Discovery Capital Management are also in the round.

Telia Sonera is a longtime partner of the startup founded in its backyard. It was the first carrier to partner with Spotify for bundled music offerings alongside broadband and mobile subscriptions, a model that Spotify then exported to many other carriers globally to ramp up its premium subscriber numbers and users overall.

“We have a long and great relationship with TeliaSonera and I’m pleased we’re able to take this to the next level together with this strategic partnership”, said Daniel Ek, CEO and Founder, Spotify, in a statement.

Telia Sonera notes that “both companies are also committing resources, staff and other assets to ignite the joint innovation agenda within areas such as media distribution, customer insights, data analytics and advertising. A joint TeliaSonera-Spotify team will be set up to run the projects.”

“We’ve set-out to create a New Generation Telco where innovation is key to our success. Spotify is a great company, loved by customers and with a world class take on innovation I’m excited to join Spotify’s journey as investor and key partner”, says Johan Dennelind, President and CEO, TeliaSonera, in a statement.

There is another connection. Martin Lorentzon, Spotify Chairman of the Board, is a member of TeliaSonera’s Board of Directors. Telia Sonera says that Lorentzon “has not participated in the board’s discussions or in the decision leading up to the partnership. TeliaSonera’s board and management have been in dialogue and discussed the transaction directly with Spotify’s executive management.”

More to come.

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